Morbid obesity affects cognitive function?

        Obesity is one of the important risk factors for Diabetes Mellitus , Cardiovascular diseases , microvasculopathy and many more diseases. But recently it has been found out that obesity also affects cognitive functions especially Memory.

      A research group  performed a prospective study total of 150 subjects (109 bariatric surgery patients enrolled in the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery project and 41 obese control subjects who had not undergone bariatric surgery). These 150 subjects completed a cognitive evaluation at baseline and at 12 weeks of follow-up. The demographic, medical, and psychosocial information was also collected to elucidate the possible mechanisms of change.

       The patients before bariatric surgery exhibited impaired performance at baseline.Same patients after 12 wks of bariatric surgery showed improved cognitive functions.The present results suggest that cognitive impairment is common in bariatric surgery patients, although these deficits might be at least partly reversible. Future studies are needed to clarify the underlying mechanisms, in particular, longitudinal studies using neuroimaging and blood markers.But this study adds one more dimension to the ill effects of obesity.

Gunstad, J., Strain, G., Devlin, M., Wing, R., Cohen, R., Paul, R., Crosby, R., & Mitchell, J. (2010). Improved memory function 12 weeks after bariatric surgery Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases DOI: 10.1016/j.soard.2010.09.015

Source:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155072891000688X